A service network is a data processing environment in which the service is collectively provided by different data processing systems providing different portions of the service. For example, if a service has portions A, B, and C, one or more data processing systems provide portion A, one or more other data processing systems provide portion B, and one or more other data processing systems provide portion C, thereby collectively providing service (A,B,C). Service networks by themselves need not be data processing entities but data processing is one part of each node of the networks.
A failure of a service network, or a subservice therein, can occur for a variety of reasons. For example, a subservice may fail due to system-related issues, bugs in network routing, or other suspicious activities. A malicious overutilization, underutilization, or mis-utilization of a subservice is also regarded as a failure of the subservice, a failure of a service network in which the subservice participates, or both.